- Details
- By Levi Rickert
Mark Charles thinks it is time for America to have a national dialogue about race, gender and class.
Published May 30, 2019
WASHINGTON — With a release of a YouTube video, Mark Charles, a tribal citizen of the Navajo Nation, announced he is running for president of the United States in 2020.
Charles, who is one of the country's leading experts on the Doctrine of Discovery, challenges Americans to get past the current politics of whether America needs to be great again or the opposing viewpoint that America is already great and enter into a national dialogue that involves race, gender and class.
He calls his campaign an 18-month journey.
In his announcement video that runs almost nine minutes, Charles argues "We the People" in the U.S. Constitution was not inclusive of women or Native Americans and only considered African American slaves as only being 3/5 of a person. Charles says even with the attempt to remedy the injustice of slavery of African Americans, the United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with a disproportionate of people of color.
Charles says "We the people have never meant all the people." He feels it is time for inclusion. He says it is time for "We the people to truly means all the people."
Neither a Democrat or a Republican, Charles, who lives in Washington D.C., is running as an independent.
DISCLOSURE: Charles is a longtime contributor to Native News Online
Read his latest Commentary that appeared Monday, on Memorial Day, in Native News Online: A Native Perspective on Memorial Day
Since you're here...
We believe everyone in Indian Country deserves equal access to news and commentary pertaining to them, their relatives and their communities. That's why the story you’ve just finished was free — and we want to keep it that way, for all readers. But we hope it inspires you to make a gift of $5 or more to Native News Online so that we can continue publishing more stories that make a difference to Native people, whether they live on or off the reservation. Your donation will help us keep producing quality journalism and elevating Indigenous voices. Any contribution of any amount — big or small — gives us a better, stronger future and allows us to remain a force for change. Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.
